Log # 32: Distant worlds 2, waypoint 3 The conflux and beyond
08 Feb 2019(Wettoast) Wanda Fersegi
Conflux arrival
Been behind the stick for quite a while now, but we're here. The 3rd waypoint. Seems a bit morbid that the planners would have a meet up at a site with such a strange and perplexing story that seems to end badly for the former inhabitants . Nevertheless, our little group was overwhelmed with relief after being behind the controls for nearly a day and seeing the main bulk of the fleet already set down . Many others also seemed exhausted . Although many of us have been on long excursions before, the fact that we're out here for many more months seems to be weighing on our collective minds. Some of the better waypoints and locations are coming up, I'm pretty sure it will make the endless cycle of jump and scan worth it.
The rusty net/cage
Well I wasn't wrong, I spent the better part of a day or two circling and inside the "rusty net" nebula being blown away by the deep reds and greens. Better being exhausted and amazed than exhausted and bored. Our little group within the massive fleet is starting to get a bit stretched out, for every one of us there's at least 500 lightyears between each ship. Willpower should be just fine while we are still close to the line of starports connecting Colonia and inhabited human space, but many of us are starting to wonder if it will stay that way when we hit the far side of the core..... Once there a resupply can be days to even weeks off.
The waypoint dubbed the " Collection of wonders" is only a few hundred lightyears off now. I should be able to link up with a few pilots there considering some of us are behind on the trip to waypoint 4 .
Collection of wonders
I had never seen a ringed neutron star in my life, but when you do you will know what it truly means to feel tiny. Got a good scare after flying within a few hundred km of the rings and seeing them whipping around the dense neutron at what seems to be a deadly few thousand km a second. Here you are taking faster than light travel for granted, something our ancestors thought was pure fantasy, only to be humbled again and again, reminded that the universe does not care about you.
Overall the expedition has been fruitful so far, a few wingmates stumbled across undiscovered stellar phenomena finding more " space squids " along with hardy high temperature and pressure surviving surface life forms. Glad to see our time out here is contributing loads to humanity's understanding of the universe . News from back home seemed a bit odd. The empire had some sort of inner temper tantrum with a separatist group, and the information cycle surrounding the thargoid threat seems to have slowed down significantly. Seems out of character for those bugs considering how much destruction they've caused so far .... Anyway, I think I've logged 12 straight hours at the controls today. Should hit the bunk and shut my brain off for a decade or something.
Wanda N. Fersegi " Wettoast ", out.